Gut bacteria and liver disease - an intriguing connection
How can gut bacteria be involved in the development of liver diseases? Hov seeks to answer this with his ERC Consolidator Grant project "Fatty liver versus autoimmunity of the bile ducts - defining the gut signals driving steatosis and inflammatory disease of the gut-liver axis (FatVersusBile)", which starts in May, 2025.
Professor Hov is funded up to 2 million euros from the European Research Council over the next five years.
"This is incredibly exciting! The grant is a significant amount, and it provides us with substantial resources to work in a new and promising direction that we hope can help our patients. At the same time, the award is highly prestigious and a major recognition for our research environment. It will strengthen our chances of making an impact in our field of research in the future, “Hov says.
Hov is a professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the University of Oslo and a senior consultant at Oslo University Hospital. He is also group leader at the Norwegian PSC Research Centre and the Research Institute for Internal Medicine.
Liver diseases linked to gut disorders
The FatVersusBile research project aims to understand how different liver diseases develop and how they influence each other.
"Some liver diseases are linked to simultaneous diseases in the gut. This suggests that they are influenced by mechanisms driven by gut microbial activity or gut signals," he explains.
For example, both primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), an autoimmune disease of the bile ducts, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), also known as fatty liver disease, are more common in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) than in the general population.
However, bile duct disease and fatty liver disease occur together less frequently than expected and could be speculated to protect against each other.
"This indicates that separate gut signals could influence these conditions, and a driver of one disease could even protect against the other," Hov says.
Exploring the gut-liver interaction
The project's goal is to understand how gut microbial activity can lead to liver disease in some individuals, while others have completely healthy livers.
"We want to understand how these diseases originate and affect each other. How do gut signals interact to impact liver health?"
"By studying liver health in individuals with gut diseases, we will have a unique 'window' into how gut signals interact to cause and drive liver health. This would be of great importance in both PSC and MASLD, where few effective therapies are available," he explains.
The research involves an extensive set of methods established in Hov’s research group, to define the gut signals acting in PSC and MASLD and liver health in both patient samples and cell models in the laboratory. Hov and colleagues will also study the effects of different types of gut bacteria directly in animal models.
A future in liver disease treatment
The knowledge gained from the project will serve as basis for diagnostic and prognostic tools, and new targets relevant for trials to prevent and treat liver disease.
"I hope to identify one or more gut bacteria-driven mechanisms that either lead to liver or bile duct disease or are particularly important for maintaining a healthy liver. Such new knowledge can then be translated into treatment trials, which we hope will ultimately benefit the patients," Hov says.
A prestigious recognition
Dean of Research Jan Bjålie at the Faculty of Medicine expresses pride over the grant:
"We are delighted to congratulate Johannes Hov on receiving the prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council. This is a fantastic achievement that recognizes the groundbreaking work and innovation within the project," he says.
"The project addresses some of the most challenging and complex aspects of severe liver diseases. By investigating how the gut microbiome affects the development of both fatty liver disease and PSC, this project will provide us with deeper insights into the disease mechanisms behind severe liver conditions. It is an ambitious research goal that we hope will lead to new treatments and improved quality of life for many patients," he adds.
"ERC grants fund pioneering research with the potential to solve major societal challenges, making this an investment in the future of liver research. We look forward to following the project's progress and the breakthroughs it will bring."
Excellence in European research
ERC Consolidator Grants are aimed at promising researchers 7-12 years post-PhD who have demonstrated the potential for independent research and scientific maturity. Successful applicants receive up to 2 million euros for up to five years.
This is Johannes Hov's second ERC project. He was previously awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2018 for his project StopAutoimmunity.
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